A.R.E. Blog

[Note: The following article is based on a lecture given by
Edgar Cayce on 6/30/1932 at his home in Virginia Beach for the First Annual
Congress of the A.R.E. It is included in the report document for reading 5752-2.]

Unfortunately, we have all come to think of
"psychic" as something very unusual, especially since the dictionary
gives as one definition of psychic as follows: "having abnormal powers,
especially the power of automatic writing or of conversing in a trance."

If we understood the real meaning of psychic forces,
however, we would have a different conception as to the significance of
developing such powers within ourselves. Whether we wish to acknowledge it or
not, all of us have psychic forces. Whether we want to develop them or not is a
different question.

When people go about to develop any special ability or
faculty, we know that they go into training with that object in view. One
training for the prize ring has certain things that must not be done. In order
to develop the ability to use some portion or function of the physical body,
specific preparation must be made. One developing the voice trains that special
ability or faculty. Certain rules must be followed in order to sing, to play
the violin or piano.

What is that faculty which goes through the process of being
trained? Is it simply a portion of the physical body?

As we begin to develop such faculties or abilities latent
within every individual - such as discernment of color, or the differentiation
in how to apply it to visualize or picturize for others something we have seen
in nature - these faculties partake of more than just the ability to draw the
hand across the palette, the canvas or a piece of paper. Something within is
being expressed. What gives the expression? Our psychic forces!

Now let me give you just what "psychic" means and
say how it should be properly used. Do not think that every person you hear
spoken of as "psychic" has something very peculiar about him; for you
are afflicted with the same condition! You are just as peculiar as he; possibly
more so.

Webster gives this primary definition of psychic or
psychical: "Of or pertaining to the human soul. Of or pertaining to the
living principle in man. Sometimes pertaining to the human soul in its
relationship to sense, or to appetite, and the outer visible world as distinct
from the spiritual or the rational faculties." The second definition is
"Of or pertaining to the mind, the mental contrasted within the physical
body."

Perception of the physical mind must come through the
senses. Development of a faculty within means development of the acuteness of a
sense. We know that what we seek to understand or comprehend reaches us
physically through the five senses. As we draw comparisons, we get the
differentiation and the ability to evaluate tone or color. Just as a
photographic print has to go through a certain process in being made, so in
perception we develop the power or ability to discern with the faculty we
possess.

People are sometimes afflicted with psychic blindness,
consisting of an inability to recognize objects as they are seen. I once knew a
man who saw everything upside down. He could not see any other way; everything
was upside down to him. He was psychically blind!

There are also those who are psychically deaf, which
consists of an inability to comprehend the significance of harmony or sounds
heard. We have seen people who were able to hear over a telephone but could not
hear while sitting in a room talking with anyone; or they could hear while
riding on a train but not while walking down the street. That is because some
portion of the psychic functioning in the body is deficient.

Then we know from these things that there is a definite
faculty within our bodies which we may call psychic forces, or psychic powers.
This faculty pertains to the soul and also to something physical. Hence the
great difference in the French and in the Grecian definition of psychic. To the
French it means "animal" or "carnal"; while the Grecian
meaning is "of the soul life." These two meanings are just as foreign
to each other as possible! No wonder we find so many different meanings of the
word as used by others!

When we used a word, what do we mean to imply or convey to
others? This depends upon the ability of those listening - and also upon our
ability to describe, through psychic forces, or through the development
obtained through psychic forces. Only like begets like; only like can
understand like. It is very hard for an engineer to describe to a musician just
what his work is like, or for the musician to describe his work to an engineer.
This is because of individual training of physical faculties - but also the
portion which gives a perfect understanding or comprehension of those physical
faculties: that is, the psychic force.

There is also such a thing as psychic medicine, that
department of science which treats of mental disease. If the psychic forces are
not developed, there's something wrong with the mental abilities, something
wrong with the abilities to comprehend. Because the ability to feed our souls
(and that is why we are here) depends upon our ability to supply ourselves from
our surroundings with that which will enable us to develop the power of
comprehension within.

If you are a musician, you can easily understand what is
meant by psychic rhythm. It is the rhythmic form in which the mind tends to
perceive monotonously repeated stimulation. That's why we pray and why we
should also pray audibly, because the sound stimulates the ability to awaken
our senses, in order to arouse the forces which will strengthen the psychic
abilities within.

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